Only One Promise
by Aeris Ultimavara
Summary: C.C. helps V.V. understand the nature of immortality, and perhaps learns something herself in the process. One-shot written for the 15pairings livejournal community, based on the prompt "Together."


This was written for the 15pairings livejournal community, and posted here in honor of my 10 year anniversary on . Happy anniversary to me!

**Disclaimer:** **Code Geass and it's characters are copyrighted to Sunrise & Bandai.**

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><p>Theme Set: 3<br>Prompt: 10) "Together"

C.C. knew he was unhappy about something. And if he had caught her a few hundred years earlier, she might have been in the mood to care. But so many years of caring had worn her out, and it wasn't like it made a difference anyway. Whether she cared about them or not, the problems of other people all ceased at some point, if she waited long enough.

But V.V. wouldn't let her ignore him so easily. He put his chin in his hands and sighed again, loudly. He continued in this way until C.C. finally turned to face him, exasperation succeeding where sympathy had failed.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Charles wouldn't talk to me today. He said he was busy - that he had other things to do."

"Well, he _is_ the Emperor now."

"But I'm his brother. What could be more important than that?"

C.C. didn't reply. What was she supposed to say? That families love each other even though they don't always show it? She knew that was the usual answer people gave in such situations, but how could she honestly say such a thing when she didn't even remember her own family, and had seen to much hate and cruelty even between flesh and blood, to ever believe that statement to be true? Was she supposed to tell him that Charles would surely make time for him tomorrow? Not likely. It was no secret how how thoughtless and uncaring the man could be. Now that he had gotten what he needed out of V.V., it wouldn't surprise her if Charles tossed his brother aside the same way he had tossed so many others before him.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm losing him. Like he's leaving me behind even though I'm the older one," V.V. continued petulantly, and C.C. was reminded just how much of a child he still was. Physically, yes, since Geass had frozen his growth, but there was more to it than that. Though he was immortal now, and would one day live to see entire generations turn gray, he had only received the Code just a few short years before. This was his first time dealing with seeing people who should have been his contemporaries outgrowing and outpacing him. He hadn't yet experienced that kind of pain enough to become innured to it, as C.C. had. This would be his very first hint of understanding why she considered immortality such a curse.

Suddenly, the annoyance she had felt towards him was replaced with a stab of pity, which surprised her, as she had thought she was past such feelings. She remembered how it was for her when she first got her Code. She had to learn to deal with the pain of being left alone and left behind all on her own. There had been no one to help her, to stay with her, to promise that things would somehow turn out alright in this new and frightening existence where all the rules had changed and everything had turned upside down. It had been, and still sometimes was, hell on earth, and she did not want this boy to have to suffer the way she had. He would still suffer, to be sure. Code-bearing was a guarantee of that. But suffering alone was even worse.

For a moment she questioned herself as to why she even cared. Not five minutes earlier she had been telling herself how unimportant the problems of humans were in the long run. But V.V. was no longer human. He was the one person whose problems _wouldn't_ fade away. They would be there for eternity, as hers would, and if she could do even one thing to lessen the load he would have to bear through all the long years, then perhaps it was worth it.

"They all leave us behind...eventually," she started, and watched his eyes grow wide at the realization.

"Then what do I do?" he asked, his voice quickly taking on a thoroughly miserable tone. "Do I just sit and watch as Charles goes away and forgets all about me?"

"It's what witches _must_ do. And what humans must do." she said. "They can't help it, any more than we can. They must leave even if they don't want to, and we must stay even when we don't want to. This is the nature of Geass. It's isolation."

"I know!" he cried out in a voice thick with what C.C. knew better than to hope wasn't tears. "I knew I would be isolated from the world when I accepted the Code. And I didn't care. I don't care anything about this stupid world! But I thought Charles would be there with me. We made a promise!"

"There's only one promise that means anything to witches. Charles can destroy every god there is, but it will not stop him from having to leave you one day."

V.V. growled, and C.C. saw tears beginning to run down his cheek, even though he had turned his head away from her. She knew it was hard for him to hear, but this was the truth, and it would be better for her to explain it to him, and guide him through it, than for him to suddenly have to discover it on his own in the future.

"Listen to me, V.V.," she said gently. "Though everyone else must pass us by, _I _am immortal like you, and we are together now.

He peered at her out of the corner of his still sparkling eye. "Really, C.C.?"

"Yes. You are not alone."

Though she spoke the words to comfort a boy who had only just begun to discover the pain of immortality, she found, to her surprise, that they also comforted a woman had believed herself to be far beyond the need for it. She had to learn not to care about anyone, because she could no longer afford the pain which always the end of such feelings. But here was someone she _could _afford to care about. For just as she could not leave V.V. behind, neither could he leave her. He could share in her life and in her cares, just as she could share in his. They could be there for each other, without the worry of separation which clouded other relationship they might form in the world. Just as he did not have to be alone, now neither did she.


End file.
